La traducción operística en Españael caso de "Der Ring der Nibelungen" de Richard Wagner

Résumé

The translation of opera libretti is hitherto a little-explored field. However, this type of translation has been, in the last decade, a subject of growing interest on the part of international researchers. The positive reception of operas in a foreign country is to a large extent dependant upon the understanding of the sung text. This is the case of the librettos of the four works that make up Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung Tetralogy (The Rhine Gold, The Walkyria, Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods) which, in the case of Spain, began to be translated into Spanish as early as 1885, contributing to a large extent to the dissemination of the German composer’s work in Spain. While at that time it was customary for spectators to attend the operatic performance with the Spanish translation of the libretto in hand, today the translated text of the opera forms a functional part of the opera itself, thanks to the appearance of the surtitles. Throughout my paper I will explain how the historical evolution of operatic translations of Wagner’s tetralogy in Spain has affected the translatological analysis of these translations and the process of reception of German culture in Spain.